Trip #6:

Boat: Thunderbird 2.5 day

Departs: Tuesday August 29th

Fishing: August 30th & 31st

Returns: September 1st am

Intro

The extra limited load blue supermoon, that's what I'm calling this one. We were all informed beforehand that 2 members could not make it. Then at the last minute, we had an additional 2 more who couldn't make it. 50% off any of the spots and still no takers, I couldn't believe that. Looks like we're going with 19, sweet! I'm curious how this blue supermoon will appear on Wednesday night. Looks like the next one won't be until next August, and the next super blue

moon won't be until 2037. Interesting fact: blue supermoons take place on an average of

10 years apart, but it could be more or less.

Departure and arrival

When you think you left early, leave earlier… Made our way to the Longfin for some tackle supplies and Krispy Kreme donuts for the club snack. The old man and I arrived at Newport landing at 3:30 p.m. It wasn't easy finding a parking spot due to street sweeping on Wednesday. Dropped off the gear and finally found one tucked away on Coronado St. We got humbled by how many members were already lined up, about 13. I believe Hayden was first in line and remember from my previous trip last season as a guest, this to be the same. Speaking of Hayden, my dad reminded him he is on every club trip this year. Then Luke said yeah, maybe he'll finally catch something. To be continued later… To kill time we had some food/spirits, rigged up a few things and conversated. While rigging up under the palm trees, my dad felt something land on him. I checked it out and noticed a nice little bird crap on him, awesome start haha. I talked to Bill about his 5 topic write-up, aka "DWRRC tough love." Excellent information and written up perfectly, good work Bill!

Fishing gameplan

Around 7 p.m., a 2-day charter was off-boarding and you could tell right off the bat they had tuff fishing. Word had it that it was mainly due to less-than-ideal weather conditions and beat up bait. Shortly after, we all gathered around and Luke went over all the intel he had gathered from Jeff regarding the fishing options. Since hurricane Hilary decided to recently butt in, the bluefin bite was spotty and for the most part we scratched that off the list. Our best options were to head down south and hit Kelps for small Dorado (5-8lb average) or head straight to Cortes bank for good grade yellowtail with a side of small bluefin being there too. We were informed there could be some rolly conditions after passing Clemente to Cortes, but it should be fishable. We all decided to meet in the middle and go to Cortes for day one and for those who did not have Mexican fishing licenses to purchase a single for day 2. Reports of good grade 50-90 fish days at Cortes made the vote easy. Luke mentioned with the good grade Yellowtail at Cortes someone could have a solid chance to break this year's leaderboards. Another reason we decided to fish Cortes on day 1 was due to bait quality. We were all informed that the bait on the previous trip did not hold well, and most died off. We all had sabiki rigs in case we needed to make bait since we would load the bait tanks on the light side.

Boarding, anglers, and crew

We started boarding around 8:30 with small groups going down at a time, bunks only.

Shortly after, we went down in small groups for rods and tackle. Once a small group put their

gear away, another one was whistled to come down. I don't know who whistled the groups to

come down, but dang they had the volume turned up on that thing. I overheard Tom was the

one who came up with this idea for onboarding, thanks Tom! In a perfect world, all other

landings would do it this way, IMO. Since we had an "extra limited load," we could keep 9 rods on deck this time around. Once we got on board, it was time for Goofies lifeless galley speech. On this trip he had decided to paint his toenails green for us, adorable. Those who wanted in on jackpot anted up, 17 participated. As far as the Anglers on board, we had Bill, Gary, Steve Sturm, Bob, Justin, Murphy, Luke, Hayden, Steve-guest, Tom, Tony, Craig, John, Ron Rudrud, Cory Steinwand, Mike Higa, Mike Harris, Paul Morgan, Bryce-guest. For the crew members we had captain Jeffy running the boat, Steve as the second, Goofers in the kitchen, on deck Carmelo, Collin, and Jose. After baiting up light and leaving the harbor, we saw a tonnage of microbait/dolphins just outside the harbor. Private boaters reported bluefin gorging on the microbait during the day and they had bites on surface jigs. Jeff made it clear we were not joining that zoo of a program, good call. Seeing that had us fired up and almost everyone rigged up a jig on a heavy rod in case we marked something along the way. During rigging, I couldn't help but notice some unique tackle bags/boxes. I found an awesome aftermarket improvement on a little roller nomad bag, skateboard wheels! This one is amusing, there was a jig from the crew dubbed "Barbie" hanging in the gallery. After rigging up, I found a mountain of snacks in the galley, pastry galore. Now I know everyone reads their emails cause this time there was almost a shortage of fruit.

Fishing day 1

Shortly after passing the south end of Nicolas parallel to our location, the weather picked up a

hair. Myself and a few others rolled out of the bunks. We arrived at Cortes Bank at approximately 7:25 a.m. and dropped anchor in about 100 feet of water. Goofy had fresh coffee brewed and his original breakfast burritos. As expected, the weather was rolly upon arrival but it was fishable. Our only 3 neighbors already on anchor were the Excalibur, Poseidon, and Top gun 80. The bait held up well and looked like some of the best bait I've seen in a while. Jeff was marking scattered fish, so things were looking on the up and up. A handful of us, including myself, started off with yo-yo jigs. After about 10 minutes on anchor, I could hear some flyline hookups in the stern. Of course Hayden was hooked up, that's right Luke… Right after those hookups a batch of fish swam under the boat, my dad and I hooked into fish on the jigs. Bonito for me and the right kind for him, yellowtail! After these 2 fish, the yo-yo bite dried up and flylining was the ticket for the most part. The grade of fish was around the 20lb mark and almost every bite came on the long soak. Hayden was on fire from the get-go, and I also kept hearing a spinner screaming. I finally looked over and it was Mike Harris with his treasured spinning setup. Bite was steady, and I also saw a few large football bluefin coming over the rail. Another person who was consistently hooked up was a guest angler, Bryce. I told him You're always hooked up what's the deal. He replied, well I've only been fishing 20lb so I'm paying for it lol. Steady bite then turned into a flare up for about 30 minutes and a smaller batch of yellowtail (12-14lb grade) came up into the chum in the starboard corner. We ditched the long soak and were fishing baits for only about 30 seconds. Captain Jeff saw what was going on and landed 3 fish in 10 minutes. I noticed sneaky Paul on the port side staying at it with the yo-yo jig and he was rewarded with his persistence, 4 nice yellows! While all this was happening, I spotted a dorado on the deck. How the heck did that guy end up out here, lmao. Well, that was fun back to the long soak… Saw a few more bites on the long soak and I believe I took one of the last ones before we pulled anchor due to low activity. My bait was way out there, and after the hookup I could tell this was a larger yellow. Loaded rod and big tail beats, Carmelo was standing by to gaff it. Looked big once he gaffed it, even bigger on deck. We pulled anchor at about 1 p.m. and Bill told me he would measure it. Now we were off to the deeper water for some cod drifts in long beach-colored water, remarks from Jeff. Now was the time to get your burger order in, nothing beats a boat burger! The first spot was kinda dry and short-lived. The second spot was much better, big reds coming over the rail in about 300ft. The classic double dropper loop was working fine, as were the heavy jigs, as long as they weren't scoped out. The third spot we hit was almost identical to the second spot. After putting some cod in the bags, we ventured off the bank a little after 3 p.m. to search for kelps or other pelagics. Nightfall hit, swing and a miss there. At the end of the day, Jeff informed us we would be heading south to do some kelping on day 2. The day one dinner Goofy made lasagna mac/cheese served with salad and Texas toast on the side. No dinner for me as I ate and pastry snacked too much throughout the day, but I heard it was really good. Since we weren't on the bluefin program, we all looked forward to a good night's sleep. Hit the deck before heading down to the bunks to check out the blue supermoon. Much brighter but looked like any other supermoon, too much visual hype on this one.

Day 1 fish count:

• 61 yellowtail
• 56 vermillion
• 22 misc. rockfish
• 14 bonito
• 6 bluefin
• 1 dorado
• 1 sheepshead

Jackpot/patch honors on day 1: This scriber, 33lb yellowtail

Fishing day 2

Day two we woke up to flat calm weather and overcast. Paul and I put out our trollers, hopeful

for a lucky strike. Another breakfast burrito and coffee to start off the calm morning. No biters

on the first kelp we came across in the morning. Shortly after, Bill informed me that my troller

was dragging a small dorado. Even with a light drag set, no line came off the reel. While the boat was moving I reeled it in and noticed my spectra/mono was all twisted up. The spectra was so twisted it snapped, I decided to retire that reel for the trip. About 30 minutes later, we came across our second kelp. 3 small Dorados were bounced on board, little to be had in this zone. About an hour later, we finally got some intel from another boat up north. They were fishing a kelp loaded with Dorado. We were all optimistic, but Jeff wasn't buying it. Got to the kelp around 11:30 a.m. and of course, a private boater was practically anchored on the kelp. Nearby we saw the Pacifica, which we assumed was our intel source. This kelp was loaded with 5-8lb Dorado (Jeff yelled out 15lb old glory grade) and the bite was steady for all of us. After the first pass, we hit it again to clear out our small fish syndrome. We started making our way up the line towards the south end of Clemente. I put a fresh reel on the troller and sent it out. Time for another boat burger, along with some appetizing smoked yellowtail that Gary brought on board. About 25 miles from Clemente, second captain Steve marked a school of tuna 60 feet below the boat. As I wound in the troller, I felt something hit it. It didn't stick but I kept the same retrieve and it got hit again, small football yellowfin on board. 17 miles away from the island, we hit a kelp and landed a few more small Dorado. Once we got to the island, we anchored up on the backside of China Point. Jeff marked a nice school of yellows but only some small Calicos were landed. As soon as the engines fired up, Justin and Mike Harris hooked up on yellows. Both were landed and very close in size but Justins edged it out. By this time, it was almost dark so we pulled anchor and we went a few miles west to try for bluefin. For dinner Goofy made Tri-tip, scallop potatoes and a salad on the side, delicious. 11 other boats were in this zone but we only stopped once for a couple scattered marks. Low on time, Jeff decided to check out Mackerel Bank on the way home. Most of us poured some cocktails and broke down our gear leaving one heavy setup rigged just in case. Once we passed through the uninhabited bank, it was time to wrap it up and get a nap in before arriving at the dock at 4 a.m.

Day 2 fish count:

• 141 dorado
• 13 calico bass
• 2 yellowtail
• 1 yellowfin

Jackpot/patch honors on day 2: Justin Becker, 17lb yellowtail

Trip highlights

For my first trip as a new club member, it was cool to get better acquainted with other

members. The amount of knowledge and experience as a group is unmatched. As an added

bonus, Bill informed me that my yellowtail is currently in the lead as this year's largest.

I look forward to future trips and shooting the breeze with more members, tight lines!